On February 24, 2014, Nokia announced 3 lower end smartphone handsets, based on Android Open Source Project (ASOP) technology. These handsets are the Nokia X, X+, and XL. They will be priced 89, 99, and 109 Euros respectively. These handsets will be aimed at emerging markets.Nokia currently sells Lumia smartphones, based on the Windows Phone operating system, as well as lower end Asha phones, which are sold primarily in emerging markets. Nokia's problem arises, due to the fact that it is expected to be acquired by Microsoft, at the end of March this year. So the question is, what is Microsoft supposed to do with smartphones having its biggest competitor's operating system on them? For Microsoft to support these phones, it has to support the Android operating system platform and ecosystem. There is no way around it. Now Nokia might argue, that its implementation of Android, with an interface that resembles Windows Phone's, that is integrated with Microsoft's services such as Bing Search, and Skype telecommunications, negates the impact of Android. However that's like dressing a pig in a wig, dress, shoes, and make up, and insisting it's a girl. At their hearts, the Nokia X devices are Android devices, and to support them, you will need Android developers, Android developer tools, Android infrastructure, etc. These are all major elements of the Android ecosystem, and it makes no sense that Microsoft takes its limited resources to support an ecosystem it competes against, making it stronger, and its own ecosystem relatively weaker.Nokia's most popular Lumia Windows Phones are the Lumia 520 and 521. The Lumia 520 can be found as low as $59.99 (as of the writing of this article) on Amazon. Also, leaked specifications for Windows Phone 8.1, show that operating system will decrease its lowest end resolution specs from 480x800, to 360x640, indicating that Microsoft has every intention of targeting very low end smartphones with Windows Phone. Therefore at best, Nokia's X phones are redundant, and at worst, they are a distraction, drain of resources, and a misguided effort, that would only serve to cement Google's competing Android operating system in the market, to the detriment of Microsoft's own.

Now the Nokia Xs were sold on the idea that we are no longer living in an era of platforms and their surrounding ecosystems, but one of cloud services. This is nonsense! If Microsoft was to lose its Windows client operating system, it would lose its entire ecosystem of developers, customers, partners, etc. surrounding that platform. (Not to mention a gigantic billion dollar business, virtually all companies drool of having.) So then, where would the developers come from to build cloud services on top of Windows Azure which MS monetizes, after Microsoft disbands its own, through the relinquishing of Windows client? From where? From Microsoft's competitors? So while Apple, Google, and lesser platform owners have their own armies of developers, Microsoft must try and convince developers preoccupied with the ecosystems they are associated with, to help it grow its cloud ecosystem, when its so much easier and more productive for these developers to focus on Apple's, Google's, and others'? This is rubbish! The era we live in is still about platforms and the ecosystems around them, and Microsoft foregoing the protection and growth of all its platforms, especially Windows client, happens at its own peril. This era is not about cloud minus the Windows / Windows Phone clients: this era is about Microsoft modernizing its Windows / Windows Phone clients, and enhancing them with cloud services - built on top of its Windows Azure and other platforms.Patmore Douglas